If this driver’s license appears a bit odd, it may be due to the fact that Niko Alm is wearing a pasta strainer. An atheist, Alm claimed that the pasta strainer was religious headgear as a pastafarian and member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It is not clear if he listed his weight as al dente.
Continue reading “Driver Succeeds In Effort To Wear Pasta Strainer On License As Pastafarian”
Category: Religion
Today, we filed the complaint below in the challenge to Utah’s criminal polygamy law. I am still in Salt Lake City for the filing. With me today is our local counsel Adam Alba, an outstanding young attorney and one of my former students. As noted earlier, the lawsuit is on behalf of my clients, the Brown family. The Browns are featured in the TLC program Sister Wives as an openly polygamous family.
Continue reading “Brown Family Challenges Utah’s Polygamy Law”
As reported by The New York Times and National Public Radio, I will be traveling to Salt Lake City today to file (on Wednesday) a challenge to the Utah statute criminalizing bigamy and cohabitation. The lawsuit will be filed on behalf of my clients, the Brown family. The Browns are featured in the TLC program Sister Wives as an openly polygamous family.
Continue reading “Brown Family To File Challenge To The Criminalization of Polygamy In Utah”
It appears that Vladimir Putin is not just an action hero but an actual gift of God. First deputy administration chief Vladislav Surkov set a new standard for sycophants and lickspittles everywhere by announcing that Putin was sent here by God to lead the Russian people. Wow, I thought he was just sent by Marvel.
Continue reading “Putinodox Faith: Russian Official Proclaims That Putin Was Sent By God”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
Last night Ann Coulter, a person I loathe, appeared on the Bill Maher Show. She was pushing her new book “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America.” Cringing as I watched her the thought nevertheless occurred to me that “She really believes this crap she sells.” This minor epiphany led me on to other thoughts. The battle in American politics has essentially devolved into a two sided affair between opponents convinced of the “demonic,” to use Ann’s term, nature of their ideological opposites. In this ongoing struggle one can’t merely disagree with us on a given political/societal issue, without our believing them to be hateful and worthy of being despised. Their motivation must undoubtedly be sociopathy and/or undemocratic. I must admit that I myself often feel that way about those who disagree with me and I say this with the rueful knowledge that when I do I am allowing myself to engage in stereotypical behavior.
Continue reading “America’s Eternal Internal Battle”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
In Israel, archeologists began a dig this week at the remains of the Philistine city of Gath. Long regarded in the Hebrew Bible as the “bad guys” of the ancient world, the Philistines are emerging as a complex civilization with Hellenistic roots. In fact, the Philistines arrived from ancient Greece about 1200 BCE, and gained control of the major seaports of Ashkelon and Ashdod, as well as the Gaza strip. The ancient city of Gath stood on the far frontier of the coastal-bound Philistine empire and adjacent to the Israelites, who occupied the inland hills. Gath had been inhabited since prehistoric times and the conquering Philistines were all too happy to take up residence in a ready-made encampment.
Ohio Rep. Robert Mecklenborg is a Republican legislator and former prosecutor who has made his career on family values legislation, including his opposition to abortion rights. The Roman Catholic legislator seemed to have strayed a bit after he was arrested in a car with temporary Kentucky plates in Indiana with a young stripper. Tests found he was loaded with not just alcohol but Viagra.
The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, 84, has been voted off the board for Crystal Cathedral Ministries, which he founded over 50 years ago. This follows an earlier move to oust his son, Robert A. Schuller. The ministry is in debt and rife with family divisions, including one over a required anti-gay marriage pledge demanded by his daughters.
Continue reading “Hour of Power [Grab]: Robert Schuller Thrown Out Of Crystal Ministries”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The evolution of religious beliefs, as people try and cope with scientific evidence, has taken some strange paths. By the 18th century, the concept of a heliocentric solar systems, wherein the Earth is one of several planets, was becoming impossible to deny. The scientists and theologians of the day, pondered the question: Would God really have bothered to create empty worlds?
A war of giant Jesuses has entered a new phase. A 36 meter (or 118 feet) Christ was unveiled in Poland last year. Now, President Alan Garcia has responded with Cristo del Pacifico (Christ of the Pacific), on a hill in Lima — standing 37 metres (122 feet). That’s right, four feet more than the Polish Jesus — not doubt now to be known as Jesusito (“little Jesus”) in Peru.
Continue reading “Jesus Envy: How Big Is Your Savior?”
A French woman has brought charges against the controversial and secretive Catholic society Opus Dei, alleging that she was brainwashed into working as a domestic servant with virtually no pay. This would have been the story line if Silas had simply sued Bishop Aringarosa in The Da Vinci Code.
Continue reading “Opus Dei in Court”
For years, we have followed the painful display of Barack Obama trying to deal with same-sex marriage by finding the best political position for himself. Principle has never been part of the equation, of course. The decision whether to stop discrimination against homosexuals is clearly based on what would be the most useful to the President. The result has been rather ugly with Jay Carney prompting laughs with the recent position that the President has been clear that his position is unclear. Now the President has adopted another position tailored for the election.
Continue reading “Obama: I’ve Made A Decision To Leave The Decision To States On Gay Marriage”
Egyptian telecom businessman Naguib Sawiris is being sued in various lawsuits for “religious contempt” because of a simple cartoon showing Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie Mouse with a veil. Sawiris is a Christian secularist and was making a joke. However, an Islamic group called the Salafis has led a campaign against him for insulting Islam and demands for prosecution.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
We have previously discussed the case of Geert Wilders, here, who was accused of inciting hatred with his anti-Islamic diatribes. In an unusual move, the prosecution team had asked for an acquittal. Wilders has advocated outlawing the Koran in the Netherlands, like Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He also referred to Mohammed as “the devil.”
Wilder’s right of free expression has been upheld, the same right of free expression he wants to deny to Muslims.
Continue reading “Amsterdam Court Acquits Geert Wilders of Hate Speech”
Those morally correct, God-fearing extremists in Pakistan have added another outrage to their already ample list of atrocities. Pakistani Islamic militants kidnapped a girl of nine and tried to use her as a human bomb at a checkpoint. Sohana Jawed, a girl of nine, was able to escape at the last minute and the militants will now have to kidnap another child for a good deed.
Continue reading “Islamic Militants Kidnap Nine-Year-Old Girl And Attempt To Use Her As Human Bomb”